Kelly Nissan of Beverly News

From the Vancouver Courier - Exclusivity. It’s one of those things you can’t price on. Er, or rather, you can. Usually it’s ENORMOUS.

Designer purses, hand-tooled leather shoes, finely tailored suits; in the fashion world, being unique costs big. Same thing for cars… most of the time.

Now, if you run out and plonk down 60 or 70 grand on an E-Class Mercedes or 5-series BMW, it’s going to take all of five minutes before you find yourself parking at the mall next to somebody who bought the exact same car, except in a nicer trim level. So save your money. If you really want to stand out, buy a Nissan.

Specifically, this Nissan right here. It’s the Maxima, and it’s one of those cars that you’ll only find one or two of in stock at your local dealership, and few out on the roads. Nissan doesn’t build or sell a lot of them, although it maintains that it’s the flagship sedan for the brand.

The problem is two-fold. First, Nissan has at least two flagship cars already: for performance, the GT-R, and for green creds, the allelectric Leaf. The Maxima tends to get overshadowed by these well-publicized giants.

Second, cost. When launched in 2009, the redesigned Maxima SV had a price that lapped right up against the bottom pricing-rungs of the Infiniti G37 sedan. Add Infiniti’s often-aggressive lease rates into the mix, and the Maxima actually becomes more expensive than a comparably equipped G.

For 2012, Nissan has reduced the price of the Maxima somewhat. As tested, this SV Sport is now $40,230 before freight, and base models start at $37,880, down $1,920 since last year.

Still, that’s a lot of coin to spend on a Nissan. Is it worth it? I certainly think so, and here’s why.
Read the rest of the article after the jump.

From Inautonews - Nissan aims to reach 10 percent market share in the United States over the next three years by focusing on larger volumes of fewer models, CEO Carlos Ghosn announced.

According to Ghosn, “the most important element is having enough cars with big volumes, not multiplying the number of products that we have.”

“We need a limited number of cars with very big volumes to sustain the brand,” Ghosn told Automotive News last week. Ghosn also said the Nissan lineup needs readjusting, as a lot of cars with small volumes doesn’t work”. “I want cars with big volumes,” he added.

In October, the only Nissan product reaching the top 10 for vehicle sales by nameplate in the U.S. was the Altima, while 19 of the 23 Nissan and Infiniti models had sales below 50,000 units. Nissan aims to achieve a 10 percent share in the U.S. market, estimated to reach 14 million units by mid-2012.

In order to meet the ambitious goal, Nissan needs to sell 54 percent more cars in the U.S. than last year’s 908,570 units sold under its own brand and the luxury brand Infiniti. Over the last two years, Nissan increased its market share from 6.6 percent in 2009 to 7.4 percent in 2010. During the first 10 months of 2011, Nissan’s sales increased by 15 percent, to 856,425 units, placing the Japanese manufacturer in the fourth place among automakers with the highest percentage increase.